Noah Levy did something interesting, recently. He exercised the power of the Minority Opinion, usually reserved for the frickin’ Supreme Court (not appointed County Planning Commissioners), in order to express his dissatisfaction with the marijuana policy draft submitted by the Planning Commission. (Of note: Levy was the only dissenting opinion.)

THC loves dissent. We make it a point to dissent at least three times daily. Hell, we’ve dissented three times since the beginning of this post!

But what we don’t like is when someone like Levy is spoon-fed a bunch of bullshit and regurgitates near-verbatim. Of course, what we mean is this:

If you go back and check the Planning Commission meetings since Noah Levy was appointed, you’ll see that Noah has had, far and away, the poorest meeting attendance of any of the Commissioners. Hey, we get it, it’s not a glamorous job – but his ability to adequately and fully understand issues presented to the Commission is severely impacted as a result. (Good choice, Mark Lovelace, good choice!)

What’s more is that the Planning Commission, working under the illusion of a March 1st, 2016 deadline, met pretty ridiculous amount of times throughout November in order to keep the marijuana ordinance on track. Guess who didn’t make it to the majority of meetings.

That’s right, Noah Levy.

(Just in case you are wondering, yes, that is a mugshot. It’s from when Levy got arrested for drunk driving…OMG! That totally explains why he doesn’t make it to meetings; maybe he doesn’t have a license anymore.)

Anyways, Levy took it upon himself to pen his minority opposition letter – to accompany the letter that the rest of the Planning Commission wrote for the B.o.S. – even though he hadn’t bothered to attend as many meetings as literally anyone else. Both letters can be viewed below:

To give Levy a break, maybe he wrote the letter out of sheer ignorance of the information provided to the rest of the Planning Commissioners. Although that’s not the most desirable excuse for an appointed official, we could at least sort of understand that.

But it is THC’s fear that not only was Levy ill-informed due to his decidedly lacking participation, he also – in a fit of idiocy he must have inherited from Lovelace – turned to some real jerks for his “dissenting” talking points.

Chiefly, we are talking about Humboldt’s enviro-nut crowd, like Jen Kalt. Check out this piece she penned for EcoNews, published just one day before Levy’s letter was sent to the Supes. Notice anything similar about the points raised in Kalt’s article as compared to Levy’s?

Oh yeah! We’ve got it now! They’re the exact f***ing same!

Coincidence? We think not, fellow Humboldtians. In fact, we think it stinks to high heaven.

What’s worse than Kalt and Co. having their hands so far up Levy’s ass that they’re making his lips move is the pseudo-environmentally protective stance that these cronies are claiming to take.

Take the push for a hard cap placed on the number of permits distributed that certain environmentally-minded folks are pushing for. Specifically, the fact Levy and Kalt argue that new grows should not be allowed, while grows that have existed and operated – completely illegally – in the past should be allowed to continue. Now isn’t that one of the most hypocritical things THC has heard in a long time!

THC’s interpretation of it is this: any “environmental” group who is purportedly trying to save our County from the evils of cannabis cultivation, while also maintaining such a conflicted stance on the issue, are either: A.) completely inept, or, B.) in it for the benefit of themselves or their friends.

Trying to push an ordinance under the guise of environmental protection while allowing the same people, who have been illegally raping and destroying Humboldt’s natural resources for years, to continue doing so to the exclusion of people who waited patiently to begin growing legally, is not just asinine: it is reprehensible.

Hell, even Dan Ehresman had to resign from his position at NEC – probably because of the huge workload he anticipates from being one of the lucky criminal-turned legal cultivators that are provided for by the changes being pushed for by the NEC, Jen Kalt, and Levy. If they successfully push out competition, he’ll probably be flooded with work!

Now, we don’t think that all the points in Levy’s letter are poor. And we definitely don’t think that the marijuana draft from the Planning Commission is perfect (not by a looong shot!).

But we just think it would be nice if Levy, Kalt, and Co. were more honest about their motivations behind pushing for an ordinance that would be of such clear benefit to long-time outlaws and law-breakers and have such negative impacts on people who want to grow the legal and conscientious way.

So, we would actually suggest to the Board of Supervisors to completely ignore Levy’s letter and disregard his, ahem, “opinion,” and to focus on the recommendations borne of exhaustive opportunities for public comment and much deliberation by (most) of the Planning Commission. Maybe if Levy had been there more often, he’d have been able to get his 2 cents in. And Jen Kalt’s, too.

How about grows under 2000 sq feet (on appropriate parcels) get to sign up for free. There is no significant regs from the Water board or DFW. As long as you are in 215 compliance you get priority points. Don’t want to get in the game now, good luck dodging the eye in the sky.
3 years down the road we should be able to assess how many permits will be needed for folks wanting to grow more than 2000 feet. They can start getting paperwork in now so there is not a huge rush to try to get staff available and trained to handle the work load. By then we will also know if recreational will be legal and adapt.
Whats the rush – get it right.

I guess I just need to more fully understand. Levy is on the Planning Commission; Levy misses 40% of the cannabis meetings; Cannabis is the single biggest segment of our economy; Levy still gets to vote on the ordinance that he didn’t bother to participate in; and then Levy has the guts to write a dissent? What I don’t understand is how he is still on the Commission in the first place much less voting? Doesn’t the County have some kind of rule about showing up for meetings? If Levy isn’t interested enough or able to show up then throw him off and find someone who is. It’s not a question of politics of position it’s a question of being up to the job.

Actually the County DOES have rules about attendance if you’re on a commission. I believe that if you miss more than 2 or 3 meetings without prior approval you’re supposed to be thrown off. Someone might want to do a CPRA request to see if Levy got approval for all his absences. If not, I think he is already supposed to be out.

Levy could have attended more meetings, but what would be different in draft form? Does anyone actually believe a more informed Levy would have resulted in material changes to the draft prior to the BOS review? Still laughing at the rhetoric regardless of who is pointing or receiving the finger.

People are still on the commission because supervisors appoint as many shoulder rubbers as possible in an attempt to simulate themselves for the distopia of proceedings, making them all puppets in the muppet show.

So, chop the head off the beast and elect unconnected, non good ole G&B’s.

Like America, Humboldt will never get better at this point. Human population loads have fucked up freedom and liberty and no political system survives when the checks and balances of power are predicated upon creating a larger structure with peer reviews only meant in the long run to be the reason or excuse as to why government at all levels fails.

Boards, commissions, etc …..are simply roadblocks to justice, used to pass the buck onto another “body of government” in such a manner that accountability is always elusive.

Today’s reality is that corporations, government and groups are destroying society; and, it is more parents who foster their procreated douches with unprincipled poor values, values that keep in place power for those who join forces to lie, cheat and steal sociopolitically as any sociopath would commit.

“Maybe if Levy had been there more often, he’d have been able to get his 2 cents in. And Jen Kalt’s, too.”

Trust me, he wouldn’t. Nice spin on things, but from the beginning both you and the realtors could not fathom restricting the number of grows to those that now exist.

Again, let us focus on the one, count ’em, one minority Supervisorial District and lay the blame on them. Noah is of course from the 3rd, yes that’s Mark’s.

Again, I will notice that given all your complaints, when met with real, potential solutions, your choice is to accept the direction we are on. Couch it how you like, but the right, to include all 4 conservative-hired Supervisors are on board the Weed Inc. train. The other property owners are saying, “hey me too” and maybe rhetorically you are staying uncommitted – but not by much.

The cumulative effects o Weed Inc. are gong to be a disaster for this County continuing and exacerbating our dependence on resource extraction. This time are economy will depend on a soon to be former narcotic. This will be an environmental, social and ultimately economic drain on who and what we could become. THC’s spin? Let’s blame the groups who are trying to limit the number of grows. Oh, yeah, and let’s make it personal while we are at it.

Here is a simple solution those of us who are against extending grows at all should agree on. Why not at the very least wait for state law to regulate Weed Inc. These laws would inevitably be more restrictive.

Cap on permits = just another way to admit that the permit process will be environmentally damaging, but that the county wants to make $$$$$$$ while in the same tongue declare environmental disasters are only good enough for a negative declaration.

Right THC…except that these views are also held by Humboldt/Mendocino Redwood Company, the Farm Bureau, the Forestry Review Committee, EPIC, Mad River Alliance, Friends of the Eel, City of Arcata, and others.
Not to mention that Kevin McKenny, Virginia’s appointee to the Planning Commission, held these views and missed as many meetings. But don’t let the facts get in the way!

PS wait til you read the staff recommendations that were posted online on Thursday!

I don’t believe you can rag on folks wanting to reign in the freaking planning commission’s total gutting of the county’s staff recommendations on the pot grow ordinance. those wanting to limit grow sizes and keep new roads out of TPZ are on the correct side of the issue = those like the carpetbagger at Wonderland nursery and his ilk are sick and greedy. Sundberg deserves the asshole award, I agree; but how can you rag on the environmentalists? Total shit.